What is Recurrent Corneal Erosion?

Recurrent Corneal Erosion (RCE) is a chronic breakdown of the epithelium or “skin” of the cornea. Frequently there is a preceding injury or trauma to the corneal epithelium (ie. corneal abrasion) that may have happened weeks or years before leading to a weakened area of epithelium that just isn’t “tacked down” like it used to be. Often times the eyelid will stick to the cornea over night and upon awakening the weakened area of epithelium will be pulled loose or completely off resulting in a sharp pain proceeded by watering, light sensitivity and blurred vision. RCE can be a viscous cycle, hence the name “recurrent” where the epithelium will heal after an initial episode without treatment only to slough off again in the future.

Loose, irregular epithelium

Symptoms

Diagnosis

Diagnosis usually occurs with a slit lamp examination of the cornea during your eye examination and reviewing your history of corneal trauma and episodes of pain, usually upon awakening. In its earliest of stages, RCE can be subtle and is often healed before you make it in for examination. Typically with each reoccurence the pain and recovery is more intense and longer which usually causes a patient to finally seek care.

Treatment

Treatment depends on the severity of symptoms. Small, minor episodes of RCE can usually heal on their own without treatment. Bigger more frequent erosions usually cause patients to seek treatment. You will find on a quick search that there are “many” treatment options for RCE. Unfortunately in medicine when there are “many” treatment options it is usually due to the fact that no one option works 100% of the time. At Moyes Eye Center we treat RCE several times per week being a corneal disease referral practice. Our 25+ years of experience has led us to combine a few of the treatments all in one setting and we believe we have an upper 90% chance of solving RCE for our patients.